DESIGN FOR ALL From school to practice

1. Main objectives of the project

This project is to promote “Accessibility for all» within the framework of the built-up areas and of the public infrastructures.
It works on the principle that the persons in charge of ” Accessibility for all ” are in very first place the decision makers, local councillors for public spaces and promoters for built spaces, and Designers, town planners and architects, who apply the programs wanted by their decision makers.
The decision makers like the originators, in spite of a real goodwill, only have a very insufficient knowledge of the daily needs of the people in situation of handicap. Very often, they limit their interventions to the only respect of the national law and normative minima.
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Bedsores are also called pressure ulcers or pressure sores; due to the damage of skin area that caused by cut off the circulation of the body parts such as hips, buttocks, and heels. Majority of the people living of paralysis that stay one position on a bed or wheelchair for a long time start developed bedsore.

Although completely treatable if found early, without medical attention, bedsores can become life-threatening.
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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
Situation of disabled people in the European Union: the European Action Plan 2008-2009
Brussels, 26.11.2007
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A few of disabled persons were asked what Independent Living meant to them and these were the varied responses received:
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A pressure ulcer is an area of skin that breaks down when you stay in one position for too long without shifting your weight. This often happens if you use a wheelchair or you are bedridden, even for a short period of time (for example, after surgery or an injury). The constant pressure against the skin reduces the blood supply to that area, and the affected tissue dies.
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The issue of mental illness needs to be brought to the centre stage.

Worldwide, there are believed to be around 450 million people suffering from mental or behavioural disorders. 14 per cent of all global disease burden is attributed to mental disorders. There is one psychiatrist for 10,000 people in high income countries and one for 2 million people in low income countries.
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Daily Nation – Nairobi, Kenya:

The physically and mentally challenged persons are quite diverse in degree and type of disability and ability to grapple with their environmental challenges.

They are also so scattered all over the country that it is difficult for them to come together to form a single national body to represent them.
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The justification that a web site is accessible because it “follows standards” contains a serious fallacy. Specifically, the assumption that standards support accessibility.

One root of current standard accessibility practice is conformance to the HTML or XHTML standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This is a fine practice, and certainly should be maintained. Using correct syntax and following a standardized method of communicating information is always a solid best practice. However, this should absolutely not be taken to mean that following these standards is the same as applying the principles of web accessibility.
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Sometimes when people first learn about Web accessibility they look for quick ways of improving the sites they build. This often leads to misuse or overuse of certain HTML features that are meant to aid accessibility, but when used wrongly have no effect and can actually have the opposite effect by making the page less accessible and less usable.
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Autism, a neurological-based developmental disability, affects an estimated one in 166 people, according to a 2004 study by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention. Both children and adults with Autism typically show difficulties in verbal and nonverbal communication, social interactions and leisure or play activities, according to the Autism Society of America. Autism affects individuals differently and to varying degrees.
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Question: A couple of years ago, a very close “young” family friend had a stroke and become immobilized. The high cost of her care depleted her family’s assets. They are now forced to sell their home and are quickly headed for the poorhouse. We don’t want this to happen to our family. What can we do to protect ourselves?
— K & R, Illinois

Answer: Most of us think it won’t happen to us or our families. However, according to “Beyond 50: A Report to the Nation on Independent Living and Disability,” a 2003 publication from AARP, there’s a 68 percent probability that people age 65 and older will become disabled in at least two activities of daily living or be cognitively impaired. And long-term-care needs are not a concern solely of seniors, but of any of us.
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Working for an employer that does not consider your welfare as a human being can outweigh the financial advantages of even the best salary package. Our needs as individuals dont simply evaporate because we are paid a good salary.
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Thirty years after Masters and Johnson suggested engaging patients physically rather than verbally could have therapeutic benefits, sex surrogacy remains a murky field.

Psychiatrists and other therapists are obligated by medical ethics not to have sex with their patients, but “surrogate partners” are supposed to — and that simple but loaded dichotomy goes to the heart of the little understood yet much maligned therapeutic practice of sex surrogacy.
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If you travel with a disability, handicap, physical limitation, mobility limitation, or developmental disability, have special needs, or use an electric wheelchair or handicap scooter, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can to make disabled travel easier.
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The information or knowledge-based society is no longer a matter of the future, rather a very contemporary urge of the time. In almost all aspects of our life, we need information and knowledge to get our basic needs met, make decision, move around, participate in social, economic and cultural activities.
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For most of us, a visit to a doctor’s office for a medical check-up or for treatment of a medical problem is no big deal. We do what we are asked to do, whether it is to sit or lie on an examination table, stand on a scale or prepare for an X-ray or scan. There are those, however, who cannot conform to the medical equipment that requires patients to stand, climb, sit or lie because they are either elderly or disabled. This, according to research showing that elderly people or those with disabilities often do not go for the treatment they need.
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In time, the name Steven Hoskin may become as lodged in our memories as that of another man who shares his first name, and for similar, grim reasons. Stephen Lawrence is probably the most well-known victim of racially motivated murder. Hoskin, who had learning disabilities and was killed by three people last year, looks likely to be the first person that comes to mind when we think of hate crime against disabled people in the future.
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“Independent Living isn’t doing everything by yourself—it’s being in control of how things are done.”
—Independent living pioneer Judy Heumann, quoted by Ken Stein in text accompanying Stein’s photo exhibit of CIL’s history in Rasputin’s windows at 2401 Telegraph Ave.

Today it sounds like something from ancient history: a physically disabled person earning a university degree is relegated to living in a hospital.

But that’s what happened in 1962 to Ed Roberts, who was severely disabled from polio with virtually no functional movement and dependent on a respirator to breathe.
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